Study uses 'House of Cards' to see if Canadian Netflix users like binge viewing

CP

TORONTO - Canadian Netflix subscribers have mostly chosen to savour the new Kevin Spacey political drama "House of Cards" rather than binge on it, suggests a study by Solutions Research Group Consultants.

About one in four Netflix subscribers had watched at least one episode of "House of Cards" within the first 27 days of the show's online release, according to online surveys with 1,200 Canadians conducted last week by the Toronto-based company.

The show, which also stars Robin Wright and Kate Mara, represents a growing strategy being pushed by the streaming company: releasing top-tier TV content to subscribers all at once, rather than doling out episodes weekly.

Of the Canadian Netflix subscribers who had checked out "House of Cards," about 30 per cent had already watched all 13 of the show's episodes, 34 per cent watched four to 12 episodes, and 35 per cent had watched one to three.

The average number of episodes viewed was seven, which works out to about two a week since the show was first made available to Netflix subscribers.

The most likely to binge-watch the show were 18- to 34-year-old viewers; about 40 per cent of the subscribers in that demographic breezed through all 13 episodes. Only 18 per cent of viewers 35 and older had already streamed the whole first season.

Of those Netflix subscribers who hadn't yet seen the show, 34 per cent said they had heard of it and would try to watch it in the future, 30 per cent hadn't heard of it, and nine per cent knew of it but had no plans to see it.